Tales To Tell In The Dark

17 Faces

It's been awhile since anything big has happened in my small rural town. You'd think that if you worked with law enforcement and detective agencies you'd see a lot of action like big cartel busts or crazed-serial killer cases. That was definitely why I wanted to be in it. Sadly in my small town, Calexico, all the real action is one or two drug busts every few months or so. A cat stuck in a tree makes headlines here. It's the same shitty routine for me every day. Wake up, shower, eat breakfast, give my girlfriend a kiss on the head before I depart for work, and tell my son Jonathan to have a good day at school. He's in the third grade. I get to my office, sit down on my black, leather chair, and wait for the time to pass, hoping a good case comes in. Nothing.

As the work day ends, I pack up my briefcase, stuff it in the truck of my little gray Toyota, and drive off. I get home to my girlfriend already cooking dinner and my son doing his homework on the kitchen table. Elaine, my girlfriend, gives me a kiss and asks how my day went. I give her the usual bullshit response 'it was great'. I get comfortable on the couch and turn on the T.V after Jonathan's finished his homework to play both of our favorite game Super Smash Bros. Brawl. We just love getting competitive over that game. We sit down to dinner and have long conversations of different subjects like stuff about my high school years or how Jonathan's day was. Stuff like that. Once dinner is finished, we all wash up, and go to bed. I think you get the picture now. Same routine every fucking day.

Today, I did my usual daily morning routine. I got to the office at about 9:30. I sat down on my black, leather chair in my cubicle, picked up my cup of coffee, and began the day. However, my assistant Alan just abruptly came in with all these boxes and folders.

'Alan, what the hell is all this? Did your wife kick you out or something?' I said jokingly.

'Haha, screw you man, I was just told to bring this case file to you' Alan said,'apparently, no one wants this case. You're lucky day I could say, it seems like a big case.'

'Wow that's a lot of shit I need to get to. No wonder no one wants this. Well thanks man, I'll get to it then.' I said.

'No problem.' Alan said just as he left.

I picked up the folders first to see what I was dealing with. To my surprise, I saw that I just picked up a murder case. 12 year old, Sasha Galindo found dead in abandoned warehouse. Just seeing the title of the case made me sick. Just as any parent would I thought of my little Jonathan. That could have easily been him. Thank God it wasn't.

I went through the folder and found some crime scene photos. There were pictures of the walls all covered in poor Sasha's blood. The picture of the body was sickening. Her face had been removed. According to the report, the face had not been found, but DNA and hair tests proved it was Sasha. I found the coroners report; in it, it said the face was surgically, and symmetrically removed, almost as if a professional plastic surgeon had done it. As I started looking through the crates, I came upon the interview some detective had with the parents. I took the recorder out and played it:

'November 14, 2012: Case of Sasha Galindo and her murder'

The detective began talking.

'Mr. and Mrs. Galindo, if I may, I would like to ask a few questions about your daughter, Sasha.' said the detective.

'Yes,' said Mrs. Galindo,'We'll answer any questions to help. By all means.'

'Thank you. First, when did you find out your daughter was missing?' asked the detective.

'The night before she died,' said Mr. Galindo,'she had gone missing.'

'We're the police notified and we're you with or without her when she was abducted?'